Archive for November, 2007

Sez Nicki Additionally, the claim that the right to regulate firearms belongs to the states, even if the federal government is prohibited from infringing upon that right is bizarre to me as well. Does this mean that states have the right to limit free speech, stifle the press or impose any religion state legislators desire upon the people? And I won't accept the "there's no absolute right to free speech" argument either. That particular argument has been discussed and debunked numerous times....

I've been reading "Free to Choose" by Milton Friedman and what he said over 20 years ago is just as true today, and I can see we've completely ignored his wisdom. The problem is that Milton recognized that freedom and Free Market Capitalism are intricately linked. Since we've been brainwashed that looking out for yourself is considered "greed", we've raised generations of people who don't like the Free Market. What they don't understand that is to get rid of it is to remove the freedom that...

Mom went through her second chemo treatment yesterday. Like the first one, she didn't have an problems with the treatment itself, but she's worried about today and tomorrow. After her first treatment she suffered a severe panic attack as one of the side effects. I felt horrible for her, especially since I've battle them for 8+ years and know how horrifying they can be. You never forget your first one, either. Her hair is starting to come out. The other day she said her scalp felt like it was on...

I'm talking about John Mashek and this lovely diatribe of his The Supreme Court will decide next year whether the District of Columbia can restrict handguns in a city with a big murder rate problem. Don't be surprised if the court doesn't go along with gun zealots and declare the ban unconstitutional. I'm a zealot. He's reasonable. Isn't it always like that? And how can DC have a murder rate problem if they don't have guns? Conservatives are supposed to be for states' rights. While D.C. is...

The gun bigots like to tell us that gun crime would lower if we made it near impossible for anyone to get firearms. It's not like you can just make a gun out of a pipe or anything, right? Wrong A 22-year-old KwaZulu-Natal man built a home-made firearm at the weekend and used the weapon to kill himself, police said on Monday Police spokesperson Captain Khephu Ndlovu said the man had built the gun with a steel pipe at his Umlazi home on Saturday. "The gun was seized and is now being kept at the...

Spent Thanksgiving up in General Coffee State Park in Georgia with the Mrs' family. It was good to have just a few days with everyone, especially since I got to spend so much of it with the girls. The park had a small "farm" with lots of animals, canoes, and plenty of trails. They were happy and that made me happy. It's hard for a lot of people without kids to understand, but it's times like these that make those memories that last forever and always put a smile in your heart when you think...

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Second Amendment Challenge to D.C. Gun Ban Washington, D.C.—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear the case of Heller v. District of Columbia, and decide whether the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to own guns. At issue is a 31-year-old Washington, D.C. law banning handguns and requiring that all shotguns and rifles be kept unloaded and either trigger-locked or disassembled at all times. There is no exception for...

Georgia loved it. I, on the other hand, was motion sick for hours. Getting old sucks. Of course, the lack of stomach fortitude is well balanced by the sheer look of joy on your children's faces when they get to partake in even the most simplistic of rides.

I make no bones about the fact that I would love to have an iPod Touch. The UI is simply amazing, it's attractive, and has the hip factor so missing in my life (not. But still, it's a great toy). I don't have one because I already have an MP3 player that works just fine. This morning, however, I thought it was acting up and couldn't get it to turn on. Unfortunately, it decided to start working just fine. Damn.

Mom went back to work today. It's good that she's feeling well enough to do that. I got to see her for the first time since she started Chemo (used the Quick Cam & Instant Messenger). She used to have shoulder length hair, but in preparation for the chemo treatments she cut it real shot. And I'll be damned if it wasn't absolutely beautiful. That look is definitely my mom. A little 'older' style to be sure, but it just fit her. It's just sad that it stands a good chance of just dropping...

I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again because it bears repeating. Thanks to Greg, my blood pressure has permanently gone up by quite a few points. Greg lent me his copy of Florida Firearms Law, Use & Ownership by Jon H. Gutmacher and I've almost finished it, but I've learned that if you want good law made, never leave it to the legislature. I am a programmer. I understand how to push buttons on a keyboard that will tell the computer to do what I want it to do. It is a major...

Please welcome Fighting for Liberty. Our little tight knit group of gun bloggers is rapidly expanding. Funny, that we're not getting paid to do this and we're expanding while the anti-rights bigots like the Brady Bunch seem to be losing blogs left and right, even though they're heavily funded.

Someone's been smoking their leis. Courts have ruled for more than a century that the Second Amendment allows reasonable restrictions on possession of firearms, but the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia has ruled that such measures are unconstitutional. Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett has properly joined three other state attorneys general in asking that the Supreme Court overturn the ruling to maintain public safety. The restrictions in DC were nowhere near reasonable....

Holy shit, batman. The BATF is nothing more than a clusterfuck of power hungry dipshits who's only purpose in life is to make it damn near impossible to not be a criminal. I mean, if I want to build a silencer, I need to get permission. Then anal probed, fingerprinted (again, like they don't have my $#*& fingerprints at least twice already. Talk about "efficiency"), raked over the coals by the local constable, re-probed, and possibly fingerprinted for a fourth time, just because. Then I...

The other night I went out into my front yard with a pair of binoculars and looked for Comet Holmes. Not being much of an astronomer, it took a few minutes to find Cassiopeia which helped me locate Perseus and when I did, I couldn't quite see anything with my naked eye. So I picked up my binoculars and looked around Perseus' thigh area, where Holmes should be. And there it was. A little puff ball, very indistinct, but very, very noticeable. At first I thought it was a cloud or a smudge on the...

The other night my 5 year old was writing MOM and DAD on little pieces of paper. She folded them up, shuffled them around, then started picking them up, one at a time. This is what I heard "That's one vote for Daddy. That's two votes for Daddy. That's one vote for Mommy. Daddy, you have been voted off the island."

Barring some sort of family catastrophe, I plan on attending the 2A Blog Bash. It's high time I met up with like minded folk. Looks like I'll be in good company. Uncle, Bitter, Sebastian, and Ahab to name a few. Update Count Breda in too (maybe)!Same with Armed Canadian

Mom had a fever last night which isn't a good thing when undergoing chemo, so she's off to the hospital now to see what's going on. I'll be on pins and needles for the next few hours while I wait for further news. The chemo started kicking in a few days ago and she's not been able to move much. She had some pretty severe back pain and hasn't been able to keep food down well. While it's expected, it's still not an easy thing for her to deal with. She wanted to go back to work this week, but...

So I had to take my wife's car to get a carwash this afternoon. Knowing it took a while to do, I took along my copy of Florida Firearms Law, Use & Ownership to read. On the cover of the book is a big scary gun. It's so scary that when I stepped out of my vehicle to give the attendant my keys and my carwash preference, he jumped back and yelped. Then he realized it was just a picture on a book, and yet still kept his distance, his eyes fixated on the cover. He nervously asked me if I was...

One, are they legal to own in Florida? Two, how much is the permission slip from Uncle Sam to protect my hearing? Three, can I ask somebody to lathe some parts for me legally? Four, how hard is it to attach it to a barrel? What do I need to do to, say, my Ruger Mark III 22/45? Finally, how much should I think about spending? Just sounds like a fun project. I'm sure the FBI are wiretapping my house right now being that I've searched for a few references. I'd like to get a nice book so I can...

Greg lent me his copy of Florida Firearms Law, Use & Ownership by Jon H. Gutmacher apparently because he wanted my blood pressure to start skyrocketing. I've only started reading it and already I'm pissed. Gun ownership and usage is actually very a simple concept. Shooting someone or threatening someone with a gun without cause is a crime. Simply owning a 50 Browning Machine Gun and 20,000 rounds is not a crime. Pulling out your .22 and shooting your neighbor in his knee because he...

Still think Global Warming is going to kill us all? The founder of The Weather Channel doesn't agree However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you "believe in." It is science, the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a nonevent, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won't believe me, a mere TV weatherman,...

Literally. I have a medical thing where at any one moment in time, I can only breathe out of one nostril and even then, not much. I don't have a cold, just swollen sinuses. I tried all kinds of prescription things, but nothing ever really helped. I've always considered my wife to have some sort of supernatural nose because she can smell things I can't. Turns out, that's not the case. I tried some standard, over the counter nose spray last night. It opened me right the #*$ up. Now, I can smell...

Part of me wants to remind people that there are other things much more worthy to spend your money on and that, really, I'm not very serious in my endeavors. The other part of me simply says screw it, I want that DW Commander!

Breda has a great video. I truly hope my daughters like the shooting sports and want to get into them. I will never force them to, but I honestly hope the want to spend time with their old man at the range. Already, Georgia wants the .22, but that's only because it is pink. I'm just glad that she's already learning gun safety, even at 5, and knows they're not toys. It would be awesome to see her excel at shooting and surpass her pop. Not that that's hard, I'm a "good enough" shooter, not a...

They worked! Mom practically sailed through chemo on Monday. The doctors were surprised that she didn't suffer any of the normal symptoms during the treatments. Outside of being a 12 hour ordeal, she said it wasn't as bad as she thought. I talked to her last night and she was in good spirits. A little anxious, but that was about it. She knows it takes a few days to kick in, but her attitude was right and she's going to fight it. She goes back to work on Monday, and I think that's going to be...

Wife is sick. I have a very important meeting to discuss purchasing 16 penny nails. Everyone knows I'm not to thrilled about going to the meeting. I'm sure everyone is going to think I'm just making up an excuse. I'd trade 8 hours of those meetings for a non-nauseated wife. So, I'm getting the girls ready for school. Irelyn has a cough, one I assume is from teething (she's finally getting her I teeth in!). She coughed a little while eating a pancake. She gagged a little from coughing. She...

There are several reasons the Old School Way of print media is dying off. All of them have to do with their failure to embrace the new world. This has lead to blogger eating their lunch when it comes to calling them out on lies. Evolution would say that those who changed and started actually doing some reporting of facts would survive, and they would, yet these dinosaurs are stuck in their ways. Another tech aspect that many papers have failed to understand is that I no longer want to go get my...

Just reading over this blatant set of lies from the MSM over at Armed & Safe: The media's assault on truth First, a deputy fired what Jenne described as "a AK-47, the Chinese version," which is "currently banned." [this was before the 2004 sunset of the AWB] Viewers saw bullets fired into a pile of cinder blocks and chunks of the cinder block flying off, leaving a big hole in one block. Then, the deputy fired into a bullet-proof vest. Zarrella observed that the bullets "clearly fired...

I broke down and picked up a high-speed, low drag, choke removal tool (e.g. a quarter) and proceeded to take out the modified choke from Ugly Betty. Seems the range nazis* won't let you shoot 00 Buck because an M&M size pellet might gum up the target tracks. So, in order to shoot slugs, I figured it would be best if I removed the choke. After un-choking, I went to Wally World and picked up a box of 15, Winchester, rifled slugs for $8 and headed to the range to meet up with Greg....

But apparently when you do it, it's more like "common sense" Update - My comment is "awaiting moderation". Part of the Reasonable Discourse™, I assume. You can't be reasonable if you don't control what's said. So here it is for posterity, just in case it goes down the memory hole. Robb Allen, on November 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm Said: Your comment is awaiting moderation. So, the “Gun Industry” (a mysterious consortium of men sitting around in smoky rooms, I take it, or do you have specific...

From a conversation I'm having right now about shotguns and ammo Gregory says:exactly. I mean your supply of 10mms is a good thing for normal evil people, but you really need 3" magnum buckshot to deal with the undead. Robb Allen says:True. But I've also found that a great way of dealing with zombies is to indicate that it's election day. They'll then amble around looking for a polling place so they can vote for Democrats.

And this baby is mine! Oddly, even though I am at work and my wife is at home, I can feel her steely gaze across the stratosphere indicating I should just drop it before I find myself sleeping on the floor of the patio.

I'm having a hard time believing this story A routine foot patrol turned violent Sunday evening when a convicted felon fired a gun at a police officer. But it is illegal for a felon to own a firearm! The law says he can't own one! How can he defy the law? Oh, but we need "intelligent gun control". Really? Let's see if Mr. Shooter fits the bill of "already has a record" shall we? According to Jones, he has been arrested at least 25 times on charges ranging from drug possession to attempted...

Not to pick on Timothy per se, but something he said in my comments appears to be a common theme amongst gun-control advocates Our founding fathers, who had amazing foresight, could not anticipate the military power of future governments, such as our own. Got that? The Founders were both brilliant and yet still so stupid that they couldn't possibly imagine that we'd evolve or that weapons would improve. Of course, to believe this you have to buy into the false premise that the Founders wanted...

Not only did I get to make a delicious lemon chicken last night, tonight I'm preparing the world's most kick ass potato leek soup. Picked up some ciabatta bread and will make spice dip to go with it (the same stuff they serve at Carabba's). The whole house smells like sauteed leeks, shallots, celery and garlic. Then, I'm making a tres leches cake. Have I mentioned I love to cook?

Timothy Bal has put up another post regarding gun control. I don't want to clog up his comments with a short novella, so I will post my responses to his article here. As always, I welcome any commentary. There have been many intelligent comments posted in response to my post and comments on this subject, so I will respond here to the last set of comments by Linoge, Sebastian, and R.J. I think I have an open mind on this issue. While there are times I wish I could make all the guns in civilian...

Here's a question for the anti's out there. How does making someone who already owns firearms wait X number of days to purchase another one prevent gun crime? Greg just got a shotgun, but has to wait. He already owns plenty of other death machines, so if he was pissed off at someone and wanted to kill them, why would he purchase another gun? How does restricting his rights protect anyone?

Everyone! I just wanted to thank you all for your kind and generous donations towards the DW Commander Cls Bobtail in 10mm. As a gun nut, it warms my heart that so many of you care enough to send in money so that I can own such a quality firearm. It is because of great people like you that our country is as successful and free as it is today. You people are inspirational, and I feel confident when I say I have the best readers in the whole blogosphere. Let's check the tip jar and see how far...

We Need More Gun Control By Timothy Bal, Sr.(Timothy Bal, Sr.) If gun ownership by civilians were banned by law, there would be fewer murders. Be polite. There are plenty of illogical conclusions there, take your pick. But remember, you won't change minds by being rude or insulting.

Guy uses a gun when robbing businesses. Get's about $600 for his effort. The gun he used was worth 3 times that A rare handgun used in more than a dozen holdups across Orange County turns out to be worth more than all the money the suspect wielding it took from his victims, according to Orlando police. It's almost like the gun industry's massive advertising push to thugs isn't working. You would think with all the marketing aimed at the discriminating criminal that these guys wouldn't just...

Because it seems that even our enemies have a say in our elections. 8 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were registered to vote Let that sink in for a moment. The very people who wish to destroy our country and way of life are allowed to vote for people who they think will do the worst possible job. The background here is the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as "Motor Voter," that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It required all states to offer voter registration to...

Only not funny. Here's the scenario as an analogy. Let's say my companies business is interior decoration. One of the major things we do is hang pictures. So, I'm part of a team that is to help with this. The upper management sets the requirements as so In order to attach pictures to the wall, we need to take 16 penny nails and embed them into the wall using this dead-blow mallet. See the problem? The requirements are too detailed. What it should read is We need to attach pictures to walls....